Destruction Alone
by Tsarina Torment
Summary: In that one invasion of Karakura Town, Grimmjow lost it all.


**Disclaimer: I don't own **_Bleach_**.**

The former sexta Espada was nowhere to be seen for most of the week following his demotion. Not that anyone really cared enough to go looking for him, but his loudness was easily missed. The only person that had even considered to seek him out was Szayelaporro Granz, but when he did eventually find him, sitting out in the sands of Hueco Mundo and staring up at the large moon, he couldn't get a word out of him. Grimmjow stubbornly looked away, refusing to even acknowledge the words the octava spoke. Eventually, the scientist gave up and re-entered Las Noches, deciding that it was best to leave him alone.

Grimmjow gritted his teeth as the scientist, unusually serious, left. He had been the one arrancar above all others – yes, even his replacement – that he hadn't wanted to see. Ever. The feeling of Yylfordt's disappearing reiatsu was still fresh, and he had no words to say to the younger brother. The lack of his arm was nothing compared to the size of the hole now in his heart. Not his Hollow Hole – somehow that had remained the same size – but another one, one that could not be seen.

It was less than a week ago that he'd scoffed at Ulquiorra and Yammy for their failure, his fracciónes standing by him, ever loyal. Now he was the one being shamed for his, and all alone for the first time in many years. He didn't like loneliness, he decided. He didn't like knowing that if he spoke, the only answer he would receive would be silence.

He thought back to when it had all gone wrong, when what should have been a simple massacre had become an unforgivable defeat.

_He sat on top of a roof in the human world, awaiting his fracciónes. Five familiar reiatsu appeared and he looked up._

"_Finally," he growled. "I assume that no-one was detected?"_

"_Of course not," Shawlong reassured him, to his satisfaction. "However, there seems to be several entities in the area that are showing noticeable reiatsu, but they were not included in Ulquiorra's report."_

"_Damn," Grimmjow growled. He'd wondered if reinforcements would be summoned. "Let's do a Pesquisa." When at least eleven different signals, not including those of his fracciónes, reached his senses, he muttered to himself. "Just as I thought. There are more now." Raising his voice to address his fracciónes, he continued. "The chances of them having reinforcements are high. Be careful, this operation might get complicated. Those cowards were real fools! Di Roy, Shawlong, Edrad, Yylfordt, Nakeem, it's time to do this thing ourselves. I don't care who they are, if they show even a bit of reiatsu, we just kill them. Kill them all."_

_With those words, his fracciónes each latched onto a reiatsu or few and headed off to find them. He hung back, wanting to keep an eye on everything that was happening._

_The feeling of Di Roy's reiatsu suddenly disappearing shocked him. There had been no warning – the strength of his opponents' reiatsu had not seemed to even pose a threat to him in the slightest – but one of his fracciónes was dead. Furious, he made his way over to the last place he'd felt the small arrancar's reiatsu and swiftly encountered two Shinigami._

"_What's this?" he asked, glancing around to see that there was no sign of a body. Di Roy had been completely obliterated. "Di Roy's killers still here and waiting around?" He frowned at them. "You won't get out of this. I will kill you both!" He supposed that he should conform to their funny ideas of etiquette, after all, he wanted his name to be known, and feared. "I'm the Sexta arrancar, Grimmjow. Remember that, Shinigamis!"_

_The raw fear on the female's face was something that he relished. She could tell, couldn't she? She could tell that Di Roy was nothing compared to him, and he was angry._

"_Well now… which one is it?" he asked, to be greeted with looks of confusion. He decided to elaborate. "What I want to know is which one of you is the strongest?" He would destroy them both, but he hoped that at least one of them would give him a decent fight in the process._

_Realisation dawned on the female's face and she screamed for the other one – Kurosaki, if he remembered Ulquiorra's report correctly – to retreat. She had just answered his question, he decided as he punched her in the stomach, relishing the feeling of blood on his hand._

"_I knew it," he gloated. "Definitely not you." He let her crumple to the floor, ignoring her weak splutter and the scream of what he assumed was her name from Kurosaki._

_He registered Edrad entering his Resurrección and frowned. None of the opponents here, not even the Shinigami, should have been strong enough to force any of his fracción to release their Zanpakuto. Nevertheless, he was confident that he would be able to defeat his opponent without help and so turned back to the matter at hand, namely the enraged Shinigami charging at him._

_Kurosaki's blade was so easy to block it was ridiculous, and only a minor flare of his reiatsu was needed to send the Shinigami flying backwards._

"_Hey!" Grimmjow called, making no secret of the fact that he was bored. "You underestimating me, Shinigami? I still don't quite feel like killing you yet. Get a grip and come on! Show me your Bankai!" He looked over to the bleeding female, being attended by what looked like a human version of herself. "If you don't, I'll do the same thing I did to that little Shinigami over there and put a fucking hole in you!" He was eager to fight. This was the Shinigami that had managed to slice Yammy's arm off and he wanted to see what he could do._

_The feeling of the reiatsu opposing Edrad grew stronger and he began to grow concerned. He contemplated going to help and leaving this pathetic excuse for a Shinigami behind to cry over his girlfriend, but before he could Edrad's reiatsu disappeared completely. No way. There was no way that two of his fracciónes had fallen. The only consolation was that Edrad's opponent's reiatsu had also gone. He made a decision then. There was no way they could take on all these Shinigami like this. He would complete the main objective – kill Kurosaki – and then give the order to retreat. This wasn't worth losing them all. Nothing was. The remaining three appeared to be coping, with their opponents already tiring, but he was still worried. These reiatsu seemed too weak, far too weak in comparison with Aizen, Gin and Tousen. Were there really no captain or lieutenant-class Shinigami here? He wondered about that._

_Yylfordt entered his Resurrección, but Grimmjow couldn't sense why. Then again, knowing the elder Granz brother, it was likely that he was just bored. He hoped that was all it was. Shawlong followed suit less than a minute later and Grimmjow wondered why. There was nothing remotely near him in power around, so why? His fracciónes were proud, yes, but they weren't stupid. He would ask Yylfordt and Shawlong what they thought they were doing later._

"_Bankai!" the orange haired Shinigami proclaimed. Grimmjow was disappointed and made no secret of it._

"_Is that it?" he asked. The small black blade looked completely unimpressive. However, despite his distain, he was cautious. Ulquiorra's report had been pretty effective, so he was fairly certain he knew what it could do, but it was still a Bankai. There must be something special it could do. His remaining fracciónes seemed to be surviving well, even if two of them were in Resurrección form, so he could afford a bit of play time._

_He dodged the blow with ease and grabbed the blade that swung towards him with no effort at all. It wasn't even sharp enough to get through his hierro. What a joke. Using the sword as a lever to throw the Shinigami, he followed up with a punch aimed at his face, which the Shinigami used Shunpo to avoid. He appeared to think that a second swing would do some damage, but Grimmjow just caught the blade again before kicking in Kurosaki's face._

"_Psh," he scoffed. "This thing's a Bankai? You disappoint me, Shinigami. All your Bankai does is increase your speed? Is that it?"_

_Three sudden flares of reiatsu caught his attention. His fracciónes' opponents appeared to dramatically increase in strength and he decided that it was time to wrap things up before his fracciónes died. Suddenly their being in Resurrección seemed like a very good thing indeed as he realised with a sinking feeling that the three Shinigami that had suddenly powered up were probably Lieutenants, at least. He just hoped that there were no captains. They were only fracciónes, after all, even if they were his._

_All three reiatsu disappeared at once. Whatever the Shinigami had done to themselves, it had obviously been so quick that his fracciónes had been unable to keep up. Whatever it was, Grimmjow didn't care. What he did care about was that all his fracciónes were dead. He made a new decision. The moment he killed off this pathetic creature in front of him, he was going to hunt down his fracciónes' killers and destroy them._

_His attention was drawn by a massive disturbance as some dark red attack gathered around the sword. He didn't know what it was – it definitely hadn't been in Ulquiorra's report – but it looked almost like a threat._

"_Getsuga Tenshou!" Kurosaki yelled, sending it flying towards him. On instinct, Grimmjow raised his arms defensively. He wasn't confident that his hierro would block this._

_He was right. Pain blossomed across his arms and down his torso, and he felt blood dripping down._

"_What was that just now?" he asked, slowly lowering his arms. "That sort of technique wasn't in Ulquiorra's report, Shinigami!"_

"_Did that end your disappointment, Arrancar?" Kurosaki retorted. It would have done, if Grimmjow was looking for fun. Now he was looking for blood, so this new ability was a nuisance. It wouldn't be long before someone came looking for him – no doubt they would have registered his fracciónes' deaths by now – and he wanted revenge before that happened._

_Kurosaki clutched at his face, and Grimmjow realised immediately that that unknown technique was very much a double edged sword. That was fine with him – he didn't want to face it an infinite amount of times now, he was on a tight schedule to kill everyone with reiatsu in the town, particularly the Shinigami reinforcements, before someone came to get him._

_He heard a Garganta open up behind him and cursed. Hopefully it would be someone that wouldn't mind him killing a few more people first. Harribel would be nice – she'd understand why he needed to kill them. Ignoring it for the moment in favour of at least managing to finish off this one, he laughed._

"_Well isn't this great, Shinigami!" he proclaimed. "It seems it's finally worth killing you!" He reached for Pantera, wanting to get things over with quickly._

"_Hey! Stop staring so absent-mindedly, Shinigami!" he protested, seeing that Kurosaki was still caught up in the backlash of his own technique. "It's my turn now!"_

_A hand gripped his shoulder and he looked around, hoping it wasn't who he thought it was…_

"_Sheathe your sword, Grimmjow," his blind superior said._

"_Tousen…" Grimmjow growled. "Why the hell are you here?" he shouted._

"_Why?" Tousen asked, sounding disbelieving that he didn't know. "Do you really not understand?" Oh Grimmjow understood why he was being brought back, just why, out of everyone it could possibly have been, was it Tousen?_

"_Taking it upon yourself to invade the living world, mobilising five arrancar without permission and attacking Shinigami," Tousen continued, apparently unaware of the thoughts within Grimmjow's head. "It was all against orders. You understand, right? Aizen-sama is furious, Grimmjow."_

_Somehow Grimmjow doubted that. Aizen seemed to want Kurosaki dead, if the orders he had given Ulquiorra were anything to go by, so why would he be angry now? He wondered if Tousen was really the one angry, but was using Aizen as a way to get his obedience._

"_We're going," Tousen informed him. Grimmjow gritted his teeth. He still had Shinigami to kill, dammit! Even Kurosaki was still alive! "You punishment will be decided in Hueco Mundo."_

"_Shit," he swore. "Alright." He wasn't happy. He wasn't happy at all, but defying Tousen would get him into trouble with Aizen._

"_Wait!" the stupid, half-dead Shinigami called up at him as he entered the Garganta. "Where the hell are you going?"_

"_Shut up," he growled, his irritation at not being able to avenge his fracciónes seeping into his voice. "I'm going back to Hueco Mundo."_

_The stupid Shinigami didn't seem to know when to shut up. Apparently he wanted to die. If it wasn't for that bastard Tousen Grimmjow would have been happy to oblige._

"_Our fight isn't over?" he scoffed, looking at the bloody form. "You stop messing around! Our unfinished fight spared your life, Shinigami! That technique you just used hurts you too! I can tell just by looking at you. You have maybe two or three of those left in you to fire. But even if you could keep firing those all day…" He paused, relishing the look of shock that told him he was right. "You still wouldn't be able to beat me in my released form."_

_He ignored Kurosaki's confusion. His friends could fill him in – they'd fought Yylfordt, Shawlong and Edrad in their released forms, after all._

"_Do not forget my name," he continued. "And pray that you will never hear it a second time. Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez. The next time you hear it will be your end, Shinigami!"_

_Rather theatrically, the Garganta closed just as he finished speaking. He was reminded briefly of Szayel, before realising that he was going to have to explain to the octava why his older brother was dead. That sobered him up immediately and he skulked back to Hueco Mundo, keeping a grin on his face because he was sure that Tousen only pretended to be blind._

Grimmjow rubbed at the stump of his left arm. Tousen had punished him without authorisation from Aizen, but that didn't mean that Aizen was unhappy about it. It had been tempting to strike back, get into a proper fight with those Shinigami and punish them for what had happened to his fracciónes, but he knew that he would lose. It was better to just grin and bear it, so that was what he did.

He missed them. They'd always been there, even if they'd been annoying cowards that would rather give up than keep striving for their dreams just because it took too long. He'd hated them for that, but now that he was alone, he would much rather have them there, squabbling amongst themselves and occasionally dragging him into it as well, than this oppressive silence that now surrounded him.

He wasn't going to give up, though. He would still become King, even though he now had to find more Hollows to be his servants, and to do that he had to start by reclaiming a place within the Espada. One arm or not, he would do it. Because his fracciónes had brought his dream to life, and for them he wouldn't let it die.

**Trying to sync all the fights was difficult and I'm not entirely certain I got it all right, but here's my interpretation of what Grimmjow was thinking during it, and the immediate aftermath.**

**Thanks for reading!  
Tsari**


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